About financial aid codes

The individual financial aid items students receive are known as awards. For example, your students may receive awards representing federal Pell grants, scholarships or the like.

The Campus Cafe award code ties to a transaction code that creates the relationship between student ledger and the general ledger.

Prerequisites

• Create transaction codes to associate with the awards. This can be a one-to-one or a one-to-many relationship. For example, you may want the transaction code associated with the Pell award code to also be labeled Pell so you can segregate Pell on its own. On the other hand, you may have many differently named institutional scholarships that all come from the same budget budget so you want them to track back to a single scholarship transaction code.

• Set up in STParm using Parameter Code FCTYCD award types. These are informational and help you report on awards.

Required permissions

Create award code

1. Go to Financials > F/A Code Maintenance.

2. Click New Code.

3. In Award Code enter a code 10 characters or fewer that represents the award. For award summary amounts to show properly on the student's financial aid summary page, use PELL for Pell grants, SUB for subsided direct loans, USUB for unsubsidized direct loans and PLUS for federal Plus loans. For other awards, choose a code that works with your business processes.

4. In Description enter text with 20 characters about the award such as the name of the award or scholarship. For example, the Anderson Scholarship.

5. In Transaction Code select the associated transaction code; multiple awards may be associated with the same transaction code.

6. If the award is typically split among disbursements, in Split Award select Yes. (Not in use; only used with legacy f/a module)

7. Select an Award Type. Your institution defines these.

8. To show the award on a student’s financial aid letter in Print Award Letter select Y. Select N not to show the award on the letter.

9. Transfer To AR is not in use.

10. When you place the award on an applicant or student, it shows in a status of pending, verified, declined or cancelled. You’re likely to post the award in a status of pending or verified because cancelled and defined are used when retracting the award of if the student declines it. In Default Status select how the award appears when initially placed on a student.

11. Select a Packaging Award Type. Campus Cafe delivers these options. Selecting DL-PLUS: Direct Loan PLUS, DL-SUB: Direct Loan Subsidized or DL-USUB: Direct Loan Unsubsidized means the award incurs federal loan origination fees. The fee percentages are delivered as part of Campus Cafe upgrades.

12. If the award’s disbursements can span multiple financial aid years, select Disbursements Can Span Multi-Award Years; (used for payment plans that span multiple calendar years.)

13. If the award is a private (non-federal) loan, select Is Private Loan.

14. Round Disb. Dollars: When selected distributions are calculated based on the percentage specified in the code and then the amount is rounded to the nearest whole dollar. If all accounts in the distribution specify whole dollar rounding, the last account specified will contain any decimal amounts. This is commonly selected for federal financial aid awards.

15. If the award is a payment plan, enter a number of days in Reminder Days Out. This number represents the range of future payments a student sees. For example, entering 365 will show the payments upcoming within a year of the first installment date.

16. Select Reduces Need to indicate the award reduces remaining need for a federal subsidized loan calculation. Don’t select this box for subsidized loans or for Pell; they are automatically considered and if you select the field for Pell or sub loans, Campus Cafe incorrectly doubles the need reduction for these aid types.

17. If the award is no longer used select Inactive. This moves the award code to the bottom of any drop down menu and labels it (INACTIVE).

18. Click Create.

Inactivate code

If you no longer offer an award, you can inactivate it. This places the award at the bottom of drop down menus and labels it inactive. You should inactivate rather than delete a code to ensure you preserve history of its usage.

1. Go to Financials > F/A Code Maintenance.

2. Next to the award to inactivate select the checkbox and click Edit Selected. The award options window appears.

3. Select Inactive.

4. Click Update.

Next steps

To attach an award code to a student, you must set up a disbursement rule for the award in the financial aid year you plan to award it.